Recruitment freeze at Notts Police

Recruitment at Nottinghamshire Police has been put ‘on hold’ for a year as authority look to balance the books, police and crime commissioner Paddy Tipping has announced.

With less money coming in, his report to the police and crime panel on 2nd February sets out his plans for a revenue budget for 2015/16 of £188.2m - smaller than last year.

Amounting to £5.6m less than the 2014/15 budget, it reflects a loss of around £10m when taking into account inflation and a £6.8m cut in the Government’s funding grant announced in December, Mr Tipping said.

“With less money in the pot, we have reluctantly had to accept that our recruitment plans need to be put on ‘hold’ for this year - though we will review the position after the General Election and the next Comprehensive Spending Review due to be held in the autumn.

“This has been another tough budget, the tightest yet, and it comes with difficult choices. The lack of certainty over future funding levels makes things more challenging, but we can be sure that further significant cuts are in store.

“Nevertheless, this budget does provide the resources for new and different ways of achieving safer communities, such as prevention work to reduce demand and a renewed focus on the needs of rural areas.

“We have also been able to protect spending on community safety for schemes delivered with our partners, which will benefit all our communities.”

It is in the face of the funding cuts, and in line with public feedback, Mr Tipping intends to increase the police portion of the council tax by 1.98 per cent.

This rise amounts to £3.42 a year for an average household, taking the total amount of council tax paid towards policing for a Band D property to £176.40.

Seventy two per cent of the funding for the budget comes from the Government, and the remaining 28 per cent from the precept.